Wealth & poverty

Amy Farah Weiss, founder of Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge, is an extra-long longshot to be elected the city's 44th mayor. In her second bid for City Hall, what she is doing is putting forward a detailed and wonky set of proposals for tackling core issues — and trying to impart a sense of urgency. Fourth in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim represents the city’s wealthiest and poorest ZIP codes. She has focused much of her political energy on inclusionary housing — programs mandating a percentage of apartments in new developments be set aside at below-market rates — and set a new standard by securing higher-than-normal affordability ratios on several mega-projects. On homelessness, she says that if elected mayor, she would treat it more like a public health crisis than an economic problem. Second in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.

As the father of San Francisco’s inclusionary-housing ordinance, which requires developers to build below-market-rate apartments or pay a hefty fee, mayoral candidate Mark Leno calls for mandatory higher percentages for developers building on transit corridors or city-owned parcels. He also has vowed to "end street homelessness by 2020," in part by filling vacancies in private, single-room occupancy hotels. First in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates' records and pledges on housing and homelessness.

Three African-American groups are sponsoring a May 5 candidate forum to focus attention on issues important to the black community. Organizers have invited all candidates running for San Francisco mayor, District 8 supervisor, Superior Court and the 12th Congressional District.

On June 5, city voters could make history by guaranteeing legal help to anyone facing eviction, regardless of income. If Proposition F passes, it would make San Francisco the first city to pass such a law through a voter-approved initiative, and boost the national “right to counsel” movement.

Sandy Close has made it her life’s work to find and amplify unique voices from different ethnic communities, especially those of the young. For nearly 50 years, Pacific News Service and its successor, New America Media, practiced “journalism from the inside out” by bringing people from many cultures into the newsroom. Last fall, Close had to shutter her organization, but her legacy lives on in dozens of professional journalists who got their start with her.

The tech industry has brought jobs and unprecedented prosperity to the Mountain View area. This once-small, sleepy agricultural town is now synonymous with progress, wealth and the future. But for people who have lived in Mountain View a long time, the changes are dramatic.

Thousands of Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians who fled natural disasters or violence await final decision on whether their Temporary Protected Status will be extended or ended. Nicaraguans must leave in 2019 or face deportation.

Dozens of residential hotels have rooms to spare, but it is a seller's market, and city officials cannot force owners to rent. At last count, 4,353 people were unsheltered in San Francisco, with 1,827 empty rooms in private SROs.

City officials quickly learned that not long after a homeless encampment was cleared, a new one would often take hold in the same area. So they quietly added a team to keep encampments from re-emerging.

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